Garan led Joshua as they made their way back to Florian’s room. The two soon arrive near the entrance to the throne room once again.

“Well then, Sir Ace, I need to go make myself presentable before the feast.”

“Alright, see you again soon, Garan.”

After separating from Garan, Joshua found himself sighing outside of Florian’s room.

(Here goes nothing.)

Entering the room, Joshua finds Florian laying on the floor staring at the ceiling lifelessly.

“Oi. Florian.”

“...huh?” Florian answered weakly.

“It’s almost time for dinner.”

“Oh, you’re back.”

“Yeah, I checked out some of their military power, let’s go over what I learned before meeting the king again.”

“Yeah alright.”

As Joshua explained what he learned to Florian, life started to come back into his eyes.

“The average soldier is definitely stronger compared to ours back home. So we can assume that there are easily hundreds of people that are stronger than us...” Joshua paused closing his eyes.

“However, that just means we can’t fight them head to head.” He then continued.

“So how strong do you think that Garan guy really is?” Florian asks semi-interested.

“Physically, I’d say he’s on par with dad.”

“What? No way. How are we gonna beat that?” Florian questions while holding his head.

“We don’t. Or rather, we hopefully won’t have to. From what I can gather from the way they’re treating us, they must need us for something. They definitely didn’t just save us out of good will. When I asked Garan to show me their military force, I was testing him to see how he’d react. He didn’t hesitate at all. That means one of two things. Either they think that even if we know, we’d be powerless to do anything, or that they plan to try to make us their allies.”

“Why would they wanna do that?”

“Honestly, I am suspicious about the coincidence that led to them finding out about us in the first place. I’m at least half convinced that it’s a lie to try to calm my nerves. Whatever the reason is, I’ll force it out of him soon.”

After saying so, Joshua went deep into thought. However, it was soon interrupted by Florian’s sudden change of tone.

“...Hey, Ace.”

“Hm?”

“How are you so calm in all of this?” Florian asks earnestly.

“...How am I so calm huh? Simple, because I know my priorities.”

“Isn’t the Family your priority?”

“Although I do care about the Family, they are not my number one priority.”

“What is your number one priority then?”

“Hmph, figure that out for yourself,” Joshua says flatly, avoiding eye contact.

“You know, you remember the first time I led a job in Italy?” Florian says reminiscently.

“Of course. I remember everything.

“Show off. Anyway, it was the first time I had people under me that I had to protect. Before then I would just rampage around and kill any and everyone that got in my way until the mission was done, but I couldn’t do it that time.”

“You were with...Johnny and Getty right?”

“Yeah. At first, I really dreaded having to work with others, I thought they’d just drag me down. But after getting to know them, sharing our stories in the Family, and having them teach me about the underground in Italy, I couldn’t just see them as expendable soldiers anymore.”

“So, you were slacking even on one of the biggest jobs that year huh?”

“Geh, come on, I got it done didn’t I?! Anyway stop interrupting. After that, I started taking more Jobs with Johnny and Getty, as well as many others too.” Florian paused, thinking back on his experiences.

After a long silence, Florian finally said,

“I truly, loved our Family.”

Tears fell as Florian could no longer hold them back. He did not make a sound as the flow of water simply streamlined down his face. Joshua could only painfully watch as his brother’s pressure valve of emotion finally gave up.

“Florian...”

“AGGHH, it’s so uncool to cry!”

Seemingly suddenly re-energized, Florian picked himself up and wiped his tears.

“Anyway, I’m over it now! I was unsure before but now I know. Moping around all day will dishonor their memory. I’ve decided, Ace, I’m going to create a new Family here!”

“You want to start a mafia family in a different world?”

“Damn right! Thinking back on all my memories in the Family, I just know, there’s no other place I’d call home. I’m gonna create a place where misfits like us can live freely without fear of anyone!”

As Florian ranted on, Joshua simply cracked a slight smile, he truly was glad that his brother had cheered up. Florian then suddenly pointed at Joshua near the end of the rant.

“And you, Ace, you’re gonna help me! You have no choice in the matter, it’s your obligation as my brother!”

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“Hmph, spoiled as always. Very well, but on the condition that I want to be the Consigliere, not the underboss. Also, I’m gonna train my own squad, I won’t take no for an answer.”

“Geh, you as the Consigliere? Why? Wouldn’t being the underboss give you more power?”

“Seriously Florian, you want to start a mafia family without even understanding the power structure? Although the underboss does usually run the day-to-day of the Family and has the most power within the family outside of the boss, the Consigliere has the most freedom and influence.”

“What? Uncle Riggi always bragged that he held more power over Francesco Majuri.” Florian blurted out in surprise.

“Giovanni Riggi’s job was to control the flow of money coming into our family and run the business to ensure everyone gets paid. In a sense, he does hold a lot of power, since money is power. However, Frank Majuri, our Family’s Consigliere, was the one responsible for settling disputes with our rival families and he took care of all the threats to our Family from the outside.”

“Is that how it is?”

“By the way, our dad works directly for Frank.”

“WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!” Florian exclaimed at the top of his lungs. “You’re kidding, I thought he only answered to Uncle himself!”

“Yep, although on paper, usually, I work with Cavante to guard the boss. In reality, most of my missions were given by Frank and our dad.”

“Y-y-you worked with dad? H-how was it?”

“Oh come on, he’s not that scary. Though I say that, anyone other than me would probably die if they tried to work along side him.” Joshua says with a crooked smile.

“YEAH, NO KIDDING! Do you remember when I accidentally let my mark in Long Island escape? He dragged me from Jersey to New York to show me how it’s done! I thought I was gonna fucking freeze to death.” Florian shakily responds.

“Since I can heat myself up internally with my gift, it allows me to work along side dad without too much trouble but, I don’t think I could survive if he was serious.”

“Suddenly, I respect you a lot more now, Ace,” Florian says with sparkling eyes.

“As you should, little brother.” Joshua smugly answers.

“Hmph, ok fine, you can be Consigliere. What do you plan to do though? It's not like we have rival Families here in a different world.”

“Don’t worry about it, you just handle growing our Family, and I’ll do my job to protect it.”

“Is that right.”

After a couple of more miscellaneous conversations, a knock was heard on their door, followed by the voice of a middle-aged woman.

“Good evening, Sir Ace, Sir Smoke. Dinner preparations have been completed. The king would like you to join him soon.”

Hearing the word dinner, Florian’s stomach growled as he hasn’t had anything to eat in a long time.

“Ah fuck, finally!” Florian says with a flushed expression.

“Hmhm, well, let’s go. We’ll continue planning after we gather more information about this world.”

“Yeah, I’m fucking starved.”

***

Florian and Joshua exited the room to find a pair of maids. The one that called out was named Delia and the other one was named Carlene. Delia seemed roughly forty years of age and was the Head Maid. Carlene was her daughter, roughly fifteen years of age and was a maid in training. They wore brown and white maid outfits, Delia had long black hair tied up in a bun and blue eyes. Carlene looked like a younger version of Delia, with the exception of her hairstyle, which was a short-style.

Florian and Joshua followed the maids as they made their way through the castle. Florian was scanning around as per usual for anything interesting that would catch his eye, while Joshua was deep in thought, organizing information in his mind. From time to time, Joshua could notice Carlene taking peeks at him, but he was too focused on figuring out how to get information out of the king to care.

Soon enough, the group arrived at a private dinning hall used only by the king and his guests. King Jarv Ignarl promptly stood up from his seat at the end of a long table upon seeing Florian and Joshua, while Garan stood behind him off to the side, acting as his guard.

“Welcome! I’m glad you agreed to come. I have asked my chefs to prepare the best feast they can, it also includes one of our kingdom’s specialties, Rainbow Fish!” Jarv states energetically.

“Thank you for your hospitality, we look forward to it.” Joshua politely answers.

“Well, before we begin, let's take the time now to answer some of the lingering questions you two have. Feel free to ask me anything you like.” Jarv says with a smile.

Joshua was about to speak up when Florian suddenly posed a straightforward question.

“Okay then, what’s the real reason why you brought us here?”

“Mm. I figured you might’ve seen through my lie. Well, allow me to be honest. The truth is, our goal was not to summon you here. It was the act of opening the gate between worlds to use as a catalyst.” Jarv answered.

“A catalyst? For what?” Joshua asks.

“As you might remember from my ancestor’s memories, once a portal between world gets opened, it starts a power struggle between the two Tree of Life’s that exists in their respective worlds. The stronger tree will start siphoning mana from the weaker one, and we plan to use the mana that we harvested from your Tree of Life to perform a certain spell.”

Joshua looks over to Florian to gauge his reaction, but he looks satisfied enough with the answer. Joshua thought that he might be enraged by getting pulled into their plot but since Florian resolved himself on building a mafia family here, he was fine as long as he got the truth.

This time, Joshua posed a question.

“Are there any consequences against the Tree on our world? Not that I really care, just curious.”

“Worry not, a Tree of Life does not grow nor wilt from the moment it is born. The mana we siphoned will be recovered with time.” Jarv answered.

“However, allow me to add something on to before. Although our goal was the mana, we truly did not wish to inconvenience the people we would have to end up summoning. Therefore, although I lied about Aqualia's happening upon you perchance, we truly wanted to make something good out of a grim situation. That’s why we chose you two, who were moments away from death by your enemy’s attack.” Jarv continued.

“I see. I fully understand now, thank you for explaining.”

Joshua was content with his answer. He did not think someone who holds such high power would so willingly give away so many secrets; therefore he evaluated Jarv simply, he was a good man.

Florian, on the other hand, was totally disinterested after getting his question answered. He was more focused on where to begin building his Family. It was then that he remembered what Joshua told him, they needed more information. What kind of information? Everything. If he wants a strong foundation, Florian would need powerful and loyal originating members that can protect the Family, as well as draw in new members. He needed to know more about the people in this world. Florian decided the best way to do that, would be to ask the most powerful man in this world that he knows, the king.

“Jarv, I got another question for ya.”

The king was taken a-back by Florian’s sudden casual attitude compared to his earlier bloodlust but was pleased all the while.

“Of course, anything.”

“Who are the strongest people in this world?”

“A tough question indeed, may I ask why you wish to know?” Jarv asks blankly.

“I’m gonna make a mafia family and recruit the strongest people in this world as my underlings.” Florian plainly states.

Jarv was dumbfounded. For the first time in his life, he did not know how to respond. For starters, what is a ‘mafia family?’ he wondered. With nothing coming to mind, he had no choice but to request more information.

“I apologize for my ignorance but, what is a ‘mafia family?’”

“It’s simple. It’s an organization where I’m the boss and everyone works for me. In turn, I protect everyone who’s in my Family. This is the principle that binds our members together, as long as someone joins the Family, they will be protected by all other members of the Family.” Florian proudly states.

“I see...like one big family is it? What sort of goal does your Family intend to have? I ask this not as a king, but as a friend.” Jarv emphasizes.

“It’s simple. Our goal is the prosperity of the Family. Wealth, power, fame, we want it all. We work in plain sight, we take what we want and we kill those who oppose us.”

“Sir Smoke…you’re serious aren’t you?” Jarv asks with a fierce expression.

“Of course. I won’t stop or back down no matter what the obstacle might be, even if it’s you, Jarv.” Florian retorts back.

After a brief silence from Florian’s sudden exclamation, the one to break it was Jarv himself.

“Fu...hahahaha! I like you, Sir Smoke. Very well, I will allow it, under one condition. As long as you do not steal from or kill the innocent, I will allow you full autonomy within my Empire!” Jarv strongly states.

“Your majesty! Are you sure that is a good idea?!” Garan says while cutting in.

“Of course! Sir Smoke, Sir Ace, I’ll be honest with you once more. Although I as king am blessed with many subjects who are righteous and mighty, but as one’s power grows, so does the temptation for corruption. If you’ll remember from my ancestor’s founding principles, only those who show meritorious service to the Empire and it’s people will be allowed in power. But as time passed, there would be many who abused loopholes within these principles. Corruption quietly grows and although it is not in plain sight, I know it is there. In my position, I am powerless to stop them as on the surface, they are doing their due diligence. I’ve been waiting for a third party such as yourself to come and shake up those who would use my ancestor’s pure intentions for their evil deeds!”

Florian and Joshua look at each other after the unexpected response. Florian then flashed a wide smile after Joshua gives him a slight nod.

Florian then laughs heartily and says, “Hahaha! You’re more interesting than I thought! Alright, I swear on it. I, Florian Kuklinski, will not steal from or kill those who are innocent and do not pose a threat to my Family. Although I will warn you, for anyone that would threaten any of our members, I shall show no mercy.”

“Of course, that is what I expect.” Jarv answers with a smile.

“Now then, for your previous question, ‘who are the strongest people in this world?’ I believe. Although I know quite a many numbers of powerful individuals, I do not know the extent to all of their strengths nor their character. So I must regretfully say that I am unable to completely answer your question. That being said, I believe I have a few candidates in mind that might interest you.” Jarv states while pondering. He then finishes with,

“But first, let us feast. Since we got the heavier topics out of the way, let us relax and enjoy our evening as we discuss things further.”

“Sounds good to me,” Florian responds.

After clapping three times, the Head Maid Delia, who stood silently to the side, opened a door situated to the east side of the room and exited. Within minutes, multiple maids came in carrying all sorts of fare to the table. The time for dinning has begun.